Folie a Deux (The X-Files)

"Folie à Deux"
The X-Files episode
Walter Skinner is nearly attacked by Pincus in his true form. Many members of the production staff derided the effects used to create the creature.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 19
Directed by	Kim Manners
Written by	Vince Gilligan
Production code	5X19
Original air date	May 10, 1998
Running time	45 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner Brian Markinson as Gary Lambert John Apicella as Greg Pincus Cynthia Preston as Nancy Aaronson Roger Cross as Agent Rice Owen Walstrom as Mark Backus Dmitry Chepovetsky as Supervisor Leslie Jones as Gretchen Starns Nancy Kerr as Nurse Brenda McDonald as Mrs. Loach
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Pine Bluff Variant" Next → "The End"
List of The X-Files episodes

"Folie à Deux" is the nineteenth episode of the fifth season of American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Kim Manners. The episode originally aired on May 10, 1998 in the United States on the Fox network. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology, or fictional history. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 11.0, being watched by 17.63 million viewers upon its initial broadcast. It received largely positive reviews from critics.

The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder encounters a delusional man, Gary Lambert (Brian Markinson), who believes his boss, Greg Pincus (John Apicella), may be a monster—and decides to take an entire office building, including Mulder, hostage to prove it. Lambert is eventually killed, but somehow, Mulder inherits his ability to see Pincus as a monster. After Mulder claims that Pincus is a monster, he is locked in a psychiatric hospital, only to be saved by Scully: the only person who believes him.

The episode's antagonistic bug creature was created by means of a prosthetic suit that was worn by a stuntwoman. The suit was highly ridiculed behind the scenes. To fix the perceived issues with the monster, the production team gave the film to visual effects editor Laurie Kallsen-George, who digitally altered the footage until it was deemed suitable. The episode's title is a reference to Folie à deux, a form of insanity shared by two people. It usually begins with one person who conceives of a delusional belief and then spreads it to another; thus, those two share the same delusion.